GeoTagging, GeoLocation or EXIF data is not new but it has been on the news recently and on social media sites as a major threat to your personal security.
The Threat
Posting pictures online that are taken with your phone’s camera pose a potential threat because of the embedded EXIF data that may contain the GPS coordinates of your location when the picture was taken. Most picture editorsviewers can read the EXIF data allowing anyone to track your location or movement.
Example of EXIF data that is embedded from my Blackberry Phone, most of the data is harmless but the highlighted text is the GeoTagging information in Red – see it on Google maps
Filename – Ottawa City-20130813-00096.jpg
Make – Research In Motion
Model – BlackBerry 9900
Orientation – Top left
XResolution – 72
YResolution – 72
ResolutionUnit – Inch
Software – Rim Exif Version1.00a
DateTime – 2013:08:13 09:37:48
YCbCrPositioning – Co-Sited
ExifOffset – 240
ExposureTime – 1/1 seconds
ExifVersion – 0220
DateTimeOriginal – 2013:08:13 09:37:48
ComponentsConfiguration – YCbCr
SubjectDistance – 0 m
LightSource – Auto
Flash – No flash function
ColorSpace – sRGB
ExifImageWidth – 2560
ExifImageHeight – 1920
DeviceSettingDescription –
GPS information: –
GPSVersionID – 50.50.48.48
GPSLatitudeRef – N
GPSLatitude – 38 35.94 0 (38.599000)
GPSLongitudeRef – W
GPSLongitude – 95 16.48 0 (95.274667)
GPSAltitudeRef – Sea level
GPSAltitude – 0 m
GPSImgDirectionRef – Magnetic direction
GPSImgDirection – 297.98
The Resolutions
- Disable GeoTagging on your phone.
—- - Double check the website where you are uploading to see if there is an option to remove EXIF data on uploaded pictures.
- Remove any Personal Information or EXIF data before uploading any pictures with software like http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/andrewpeyton/teach/
Note: Microsoft has a Remove Personal Information feature built-in to Windows 7 but it doesn’t remove the GPS tags.
